The Governor
of Missouri, while not able to commit the State to secession, did have
behind him what was possibly a majority of the citizens in the policy of
attempting to prevent the Federal troops from entering the State.
Maryland, or at least eastern Maryland, was sullen and antagonistic.
Thousands of the Marylanders had in fact already made their way into
Virginia for service with the Confederacy. On the other hand, there were
also thousands of loyal citizens in these States who were prepared,
under proper guidance and conservative management, to give their own
direct aid to the cause of nationality. In the course of the succeeding
two years, the Border States sent into the field in the Union ranks some
fifty thousand men. At certain points of the conflict, the presence of
these Union men of Kentucky, Tennessee, Maryland, and Missouri was the
deciding factor. While these men were willing to fight for the Union,
they were strongly opposed to being used for the destruction of slavery
and for the freeing of the blacks. The acceptance, therefore, of the
policy that was pressed by the extreme anti-slavery group, for immediate
action in regard to the freeing of the slaves, would have meant at once
the dissatisfaction of this great body of loyalists important in number
and particularly important on account of their geographical position.
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